PRE-GAME RANT

This is an early one today. According to Jonathan Willis, over at Oilers Nation, afternoon games aren’t actually that bad for us. It turns out we just suck all the time, and being particular adept at sucking at afternoon games is just an illusion. This is just any old normal game, so carry on.

Khabibulin will get the start (according to a Bob Stauffer tweet, Dubnyk pulled his groin), and the actual game lines are below. Omark will play with Hemsky and Gagner some more today. Watching the game live is a lot different than watching it on TV. There’s a lot of stuff you see happening live that you don’t see on TV, but I think you miss a LOT at the live game too. So I’m looking forward to seeing how Omark really plays with Hemsky today, because I didn’t get a very good sense of this when I was at the game vs. the Canadiens. The “kid line” together on the road (where Renney and co. can’t get their line match-ups easily) could be interesting (i.e. not good). We’ll see how that goes. Renney’s been sheltering them quite a bit this season, and rightfully so. But lately, I think we have had a lot of what Renney calls “passengers” on this team, so that’s an even bigger story here. It would be fine for teams to check our kid line into submission if the other 2 scoring lines were actually doing their jobs properly and potting some goals.

Enjoy this one folks. I should be around in the GDT Chat, if anyone else happens by.

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This should come as no surprise… a Quarterly review that is about 1/3 of a quarter late. But hey, it’s difficult to watch this team sometimes, and even more difficult to write about it. But here it is, in all it’s glory.

PRE-GAME RANT

I’ll be at this one, reppin’ the home team. I expect there to be a lot of annoying Habs fans at this one. And to be honest, they’re my second fave team, so I’ve had my share of being an annoying Habs fan. However, those days of really, truly cheering for the Habs are long behind me. I’m all about the Oilers now, and I hope they smoke the Habs.

Anywho, tonight we will probably see more of Linus Omark. Sounds like he’ll get 2nd PP unit duties. Mind you, our powerplay hasn’t been given a lot of opportunity by refs these days, so that will remain to be seen.

Khabi gets the start in net tonight for the Oilers. Budaj is between the pipes for the Habs. That should be a good thing, but back up goaltenders generally play like Ken Dryden vs. us, so we’ll see. And I seem to recall Carey Price having a bad performance or two vs. us over his short career. Darcy Hordichuk is in, Ben Eager is out (flu).

The NHL Trade Deadline is the last time a team can acquire assets before heading into the post season. There can be multiple types of transactions that occur usually ranging from bolstering a team for the playoffs to acquiring futures assets that will help the organization down the road. Either way the organization is trying to improve whether it’s immediate or down the line. Depending on where the organization is heading can have a large impact of the type of deals that may occur on deadline day.

As I mentioned in The Rebuild Part One, in essence the dismal 2009-2010 season, sparked the rebuild in its entirety, on and off the ice. Let’s begin be looking at looking at the deadline after the 2009-2010 season.

Trade Deadline 2011

Last year the Oilers made a minor league deal involving moving Shawn Belle to acquire Kevin Montgomery. The big trade of the day for the Oilers though involved moving a current roster player for future assets.

“It became quite evident that the return was going to fit in what we are trying to do here. We have to give up a good player but the first round pick and the first round prospect of a defenseman that we don’t have a lot of. He’s not ready for prime time yet (Teubert) but he will be but he will be soon. Plus the second pick fits perfectly into what the overall plan is as far as going ahead.” – Steve Tambellini

Trade Deadline 2012

“Ales for sure was the primary focus of our trade deadline. If we were to lose that type of skill from our roster and not able to replace it at the deadline, then we would have had a lot of work to do.” – Steve Tambellini

The direction of the Trade Deadline has changed drastically from last year, this is evident with the recent signings of Andy Sutton (arguably a decent fetch if we traded him to a competing team), Ales Hemsky and the “Hockey Trade” that sent Tom Gilbert to Minnesota for defensemen Nick Schultz.

To the Minnesota Wild:
Tom Gilbert

To the Edmonton Oilers:
Nick Schultz

What do we get in Nick Schultz?

“What we get in Nick Schultz is a dependable, very fit, experienced defensemen… his compete level is hard, he’s a match up guy, he plays a lot against the top lines…” – Steve Tambellini

Nick Schultz is an underrated defenseman who is not overly physical but is great with his gap control and plays a pretty good positional game. In Minnesota he was used primarily in a defensive role being able to calm the waters and racked up a lot of ice time on the penalty kill. He is not the flashiest player; he won’t make big open ice hits, tends to struggle in the corners and physical battles but he is dependable, good at keeping the puck on the perimeter, has a good transitional game and can be counted on him in the dire minutes of the game. Schultz is a great locker room guy, I haven’t heard a negative thing yet, and will be a great addition to the dressing room for character and leadership. He puts in a full effort every night and leads by example on and off the ice.

Overview
I would say that the foundation and core of this Edmonton Oilers team and rebuild is more or less established with the possibility of adding another lottery pick in the mix and another strong draft this offseason. This deadline has made it clear that the Oilers are headed in a competitive direction, retaining players (Sutton, Hemsky, mummers of Smyth contract talks) and adding roster players as opposed to dealing players to acquire bullets (draft picks) for Stu MacGregor and his team. I think it says a lot for the organization that the Oilers signed Hemsky, albeit a high price, we are beginning to retain high level NHL talent. The actions of the Trade Deadline this year has arguably made the Oilers a more competitive. With the addition of Nick Schultz we have begun to address our blue-line issues however it doesn’t solve everything. Our defence (among other holes) should be addressed during the off-season and not via the kid we pick at draft.

Next: The Rebuild Part Three – NHL Entry Draft

It’s looking like the draft section is going to be quite immense, I’m deciding how to break it up right now. So far I think it could end up looking like this…

i) The NHL Entry Draft: Introduction – Huge breakdown in scouting, what teams look for in players, how to grade players etc. My goal is for a fan to get good understanding on the whole process, or as much as I can interpret, in fitness, on ice performance and in psychological aspects (mostly, if not all performance related). Example: how characteristics can be adaptive or mal-adaptive to performance.

ii) Draft Primer: In depth analysis on the “top three picks” – in my eyes (I might do more depending on where the Oilers end up in the draft). Player profile analysis, stats, projections etc.

PRE-GAME RANT

Not a lot to say for today’s match up. Oilers… Sharks.. late start tonight. Hopefully it isn’t a stinker. We really need to watch a win though, as these are getting difficult to watch. I think the Oilers sealed their fate with a couple of boneheaded plays that led to breakaways (or what was probably a 4 on nothing), but they seemed in it for most of the game. So it sucks to see them losing regardless of how well they play.Continue reading 'Oilers 3, Sharks 2 (SO) – Game 66 – 2012-03-06 @ 8:30 PM MST – SNET OILERS'»

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